At the end of your divorce case you will receive a final decree, or order, approved by the judge in your case. This order is the official end of your divorce case. While you are probably happy to have the divorce behind you and to start fresh, there are a few things you should consider after your divorce is final. All of these tips assume that your divorce decree doesn’t order you to take a different course of action, so please consult with your divorce attorney prior to taking these steps.

Life Insurance

Once your divorce decree has been signed by the judge, one of the first things you should do is check to see who is the beneficiary for your life insurance policy. If it is your ex, you are probably going to want to change it to your children, or to another person if you don’t have children. If you are going to make your children the beneficiaries of your life insurance policy it is very important that you also complete the next step and call an estate planning attorney.

If you don’t have any life insurance this is a good time to purchase some life insurance. Often, term life insurance can be extremely affordable. If you have children life insurance is necessary.

Estate Planning

If you and your ex did estate planning, meaning that you met with an attorney and had a will, trust, or powers of attorney drafted now is a good time to have a new will drafted that doesn’t leave your assets to your ex, appoint your ex as your personal representative or give your ex the power to make health and financial decisions for you in the event that you are incapacitated.

If you are changing the beneficiary of your life insurance to your children you may need to have a testamentary trust set up so that they are able to receive your life insurance if you should pass away while they are still minors. A good estate planning attorney should be able to walk you through this process and help you decide what steps are best for you.

Check Your Retirement Account Beneficiary

Often when people set up a retirement account they select a beneficiary or beneficiaries and don’t give it a second thought. Once a divorce is final it is important to double-check to make sure that you have updated your beneficiary information to reflect your current wishes.

Update contact information for school/daycare

Many times parents keep the fact that they are getting divorced private, or they simply forget that they have not informed their children’s school/daycare. Make sure that once the divorce has been finalized that you do update your children’s school or daycare. Also, if your telephone number or address has changed, give out your updated contact information so the school/daycare can always get in touch.

Check Credit Cards

Did you have joint credit cards with your ex? Was your ex an authorized signer on any of your credit cards? Make sure that you contact the credit card companies and let them know that you have gotten divorced and you no longer wish to give you ex the authority to use any of your cards.

If you need to meet with a Halcomb Singler divorce attorney about your Indiana divorce please call us at (317) 575-8222 to set up an appointment for a consultation.